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America's biggest biotechnology company, Genentech, has put the BBC to shame by introducing benefits for 'same-sex domestic partners' - that's partners of gay employees to you and me.

Thanks to outrage from a number of backbench Tory MPs with 'traditional' values, the BBC recently pulled the plug on special, one-off payments for staff who marry. The MPs raised objections when they found out that the Beeb had extended the payments to gay couples. Auntie's lily-livered response was to withdraw the payments for everyone.

Genentech, by contrast, has introduced a whole range of benefits for gay partners of employees, including health, dental and childcare payments, and bereavement payments. 'This . . . ensures that employees who are in committed relationships, yet are legally precluded from marrying, have the same access to benefits as employees who are married,' says Kirk Raab, the president of the San Francisco-based company. BBC take note.

Biomedicine ...

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